Skate Kitchen

Sat 20 Oct 2018

By Emily Maskell

Never before has the urge to skateboard been so strong. Skate Kitchen draws you into the world of an all-women skateboarding crew and makes it impossible to leave without wanting to do a perfect ollie.

Skate Kitchen is Crystal Moselle’s film, and the name of the female New York skate crew. The film brings a unified femininity to the predominantly masculine space of skateboarding. Moselle finds her lead with Camille (Rachelle Vinberg). Camille, going against her mother’s wishes, joins the Skate Kitchen crew and spends her days skating with her new friends.

The core skating crew in Skate Kitchen is made up of nonprofessional actors who play a version of themselves. Their mumblings and slip ups as first-time actors lends itself to an honest, fumbling expression of youth. Working as a fiction-documentary hybrid, the coming-of-age story is refreshingly real in its portrayal of the gritty parts of growing up. These young women are in the process of finding their feet in their personal lives as well as on their skateboards.

Moselle’s film takes pride in its dream-like shots, natural sunlight and lens flare frame these atmospheric scenes. Slick montages play out to an evolved soundtrack, featuring the likes of Khalid – who’s song ‘Young, Dumb and Broke’ is an almost too-prefect fit for the film.

Moselle grants the close-knit girl-gang the opportunity to candidly chat about whatever comes to mind: from their life ambitions to tampons, nothing is off limits. Skate Kitchen inhabits a space of directed realism, these young women are allowed to be individually expressive, yet they share a communal likeness.

At the centre of Skate Kitchen is a story of female solidarity. This group of young women form their own inclusive sisterhood that values loyalty, but it helps if you can land a kickflip.